Woman’s jail term quashed on appeal
A young mum who killed her daughter in a car crash has had her jail term quashed and can go back to the District Court to be resentenced following an Appeal Court decision.
Hastings mother Valencia Marie Skipper, 21, was jailed in April after being convicted of causing the death of 2-year-old Saphire Te Aroha Skipper-Hira in January 2016, while under the influence of methamphetamine.
Saphire was sitting in a child car seat but was not buckled in at the time, although it was suggested either she or the other child in the car had undone the fastening.
Skipper’s lawyer, Madeleine Laracy, told judges in the Court of Appeal last week that Skipper had been charged with a more serious charge than warranted and this resulted in a miscarriage of justice in the sentence. Skipper should have received a sentence that left home detention as an option, Laracy told the court.
Laracy said if the sentence of 21⁄ years was overturned, her preference was for the case to be sent back to the District Court with a direction for the basis on which Skipper should be sentenced.
In a decision released yesterday the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal against conviction but allowed the appeal against sentence. The sentence was quashed and the matter was remitted back to the District Court for resentencing.
‘‘We direct that a home detention appendix be prepared. The appellant should be brought before the District Court as soon as possible to decide bail in the interim,’’ the judges said.
Skipper was pregnant when she was sentenced in the Napier District Court in April. She was also disqualified from driving for three years. She has not yet given birth.
The crash occurred on State Highway 50A, on the outskirts of Hastings between Omahu Rd and Flaxmere Ave, just before 5pm on January 13, 2016.
Skipper was not licensed to drive. Her 11-year-old sister had also been in the car.
Witnesses said the crash happened for no apparent reason.